Book Club - "The Girl on the Train"

What's my favorite night of each month, you ask? Well, that would be Book Club, of course! Our club is very casual. We focus about 20% of our energy on discussing the current book selection and about 80% on catching up on each others' lives and having a good time together. We've been to the movies when "our" book hit the silver screen; we've met at Barnes & Noble to sip coffee and peruse all of the literary goodness; and we've talked about having a meeting at a winery sometime. I feel blessed to be a part of this great group of positive, encouraging and fun women.

This month's book, "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins, was a page-turner for sure! We really enjoyed the way that the author took our minds on a roller coaster of suspicion, with none of the characters being above mistrust. It was interesting how she wove parallel stories that occurred in different timeframes to bring everything to a culmination. Without revealing too much of the plot, I'll just say that there was a very sticky web connecting all of the characters to the main females, Rachel and Megan. The author's full development of each person's psyche, weaknesses and malfunctioning relationships made this novel quite engaging. And in good thriller form, she added a couple of fringe characters to make us question what we thought we knew. My overall assessment of this book...it's a doozy! Lots of people are comparing it to "Gone Girl". Personally, I liked this one better.

It was my turn to host book club at our home this month. The last time I hosted, we read "The Goldfinch", which made it really fun to be creative with food and decor (see post here.) However, "The Girl on the Train" left me stumped for a theme. How does one take a twisted psychological thriller and translate it into fancy hors d'oeuvres and pretty decorations? Haha. I ended up going in a conventional direction with appetizers and added a bit of whimsy with Well Read wine.

Pinterest helped me to take my ordinary snacks and turn them into a creative and appealing presentation. Veggies and hummus displayed in glass vessels on a cake stand (see inspiration pin here), and salami, cheese & olives on colorful skewers (see inspiration pin here) were simple to put together and added a little flair.

Some easy cookie bars, crackers, cheese and fruit rounded out the food selections; and three varieties of wine accommodated my friends' different tastes.

I thought the napkins were cute, too!

Have you read any really great books lately? Do you belong to a book club? I'd love to hear about it!

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